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This article was published in 1963
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INSTITUTE OF INSPECTORS OF STOCK OF N.S.W. YEAR BOOK.
Pregnancy Testing of Beef Cattle
E. A. FARLEIGH, B.V.Sc., Veterinary Inspector, Glen Innes
Until recent years pregnancy testing, although widely practised, has been limited generally to dairy cattle, during examination of herds, where infertility problems had been encountered and investigations were being carried out for such diseases as Trichomoniasis or Vibriosis.
However, the value of ascertaining the pregnancy status of beef cattle is now being recognised by more graziers, particularly in areas such as the Northern Tablelands, where Winter feed is often at a premium.
On the tablelands, where cattle raising has been carried out for many years in rough mountainous country, the percentage of calves born each year usually can be associated with the severity of the Winter, which directly influences the level of nutrition available to the breeding cows. With the increased improved pastures that are now in evidence on country which was formerly in its natural state, it is essential that this nutritious fodder be used to the best advantage.
However, it is not intended to go into details of the factors influencing the percentage of calves born, but rather to point out the advantages of knowing as early as possible whether cows are in calf.
Mating is generally carried out in the months of December, January, and February, and usually the grazier does not know until late in the Winter the number of his cows that are pregnant, and this could vary from 50% to 100%. In many cases, as the cattle are turned out during the Winter into the mountains, he may not know for 12 months from the time that mating was commenced. Pregnancy testing enables the cattle breeder to determine before the Winter months the percentage of his cows that are in calf.
This knowledge, in turn, assists him to adjust his stock management with a view to saving the best feed for those cows he knows to be in calf, and so ensures that the calves are born with the best chance of survival.
With the dry cows several courses of action are available to him; firstly, he can fatten and sell off those he does not wish to keep, particularly aged cows, and so reduce his carrying during the Winter. Secondly, he may flush these cattle and mate them again for a late calving. Thirdly, he may run them as dry cattle during the Winter on the poorer feed and then attempt to flush them and mate them again in the Spring.
Also, it may be of advantage to examine these cows more closely for possible diseases, and test matings could be carried out which would enable a check to be made on possible bull infertility.
The facilities required to carry out testing merely consist of a crush, preferably with a head bail, and adequate yards for handling cattle. With good crushes and yards it should be possible to test two hundred or more cattle a day, and the cost per head would be only a few shillings.
With the increase in the number of improved properties now to be found on the Northern Tablelands there is greater awareness of the advantages of this important branch of animal more graziers each year are availing themselves of the knowledge that their cows are, or are not, in calf within a month or two of the completion of mating.
This fact enables the breeder to use the available feed to the best advantage both to the cow and his own finances.